Episode 11 - Enter 77
2 January 2009
Review
Present: Following Eko’s compass bearing, Sayid, Locke, Kate and Danielle find a Dharma station called The Flame. It is a communications station and they find the one-eyed man inside who tells them he is the last remaining member of the Dharma Initiative. Sayid realises he is lying and they capture him and find Miss Klugh in the basement. Locke finds a computer which allows him access to emergency instructions from Dr Marvin Candle. Mikhail shoots Klugh but Sayid refuses to kill him. Locke enters 77 into the computer and the station soon explodes. On the beach the survivors rebuild the table tennis table from the Swann. Sawyer wants his stuff back so he plays Hurley to get it back. But when he loses he is forced not to use any nicknames for a week.
Flashback: Sayid is working in a restaurant in France. A fellow Iraqi offers him a job in his restaurant. When Sayid goes to visit he is tied up. Sami’s wife claims that Sayid tortured her but he denies it. After a couple of beatings Amira comes to Sayid and asks him to acknowledge what he did to her. He does and she forgives him and sets him free.
The Good: Thank God for Sayid. I was beginning to worry about Lost and its meandering direction. This episode provides a jolt of life to the show in several ways. First is just the tense and intriguing story within the new Dharma Station. It’s a well told drama and blends well with Sayid’s interesting flashback.
Then there is the sense that the survivors are actually trying to get off the island which is all too often ignored. Sayid actually says “And now, we have our ticket to where the Others live, where we'll find your daughter, and Jack and, finally, perhaps, a way home.” It’s ludicrous that there haven’t been more statements like this as the story has gone on. For most of the characters that should still be the overriding goal.
Of course for Locke that isn’t true. He believes that the island sent him to The Flame station for a reason and so his behaviour is fascinating throughout. He seems enamoured with Mikhail’s computer as if he believes the island led him to the Swann computer for one task and has now brought him to a new one. His decision to enter 77 is an interesting one. At first glance it makes perfect sense because you would assume that might send a signal somewhere to alert the Dharma Initiative that something had gone wrong. However Locke seemed very cool about the explosion and so we have to suspect that the message told him what was about to happen. In which case, why would Locke want to blow up the station? Having destroyed the hatch you would assume he would be careful not to destroy things which could be important.
Back to Sayid though and he and Kate question Mikhail thoroughly and get some alleged answers. It’s the first time we have seen these questions be asked and it is a relief to see. Ethan, Ben and Karl have all slipped out of the survivors clutches before telling them anything of use. Although Mikhail’s answers don’t give away anything too interesting they do point to some interesting conclusions. We now seem to understand how the Others are able to operate better. Presumably the town they live in (see 301) is the former Barracks of the Dharma Initiative. We confirm that the Others use a submarine (see 304) and perhaps that explains the cable running into the sea (see 109 and 118). Their communication with the outside world explains how they know who the survivors are. And if Mikhail was telling the truth in his answers, then his claim that the Others have been on the island for a very long time is interesting. It certainly feeds into theories about where the Others came from including the four toed statue (223) and the Black Rock (124).
Sayid’s flashback is entertaining stuff. It helps explain why he moved on from France before learning the language (hence his need for Shannon’s help in 102 and 112) and reminds us that he lives with a heavy burden of guilt for what he once did. Amira’s story about her cat is a very nicely written explanation for why she is willing to forgive Sayid. Both act the scene well and look as emotional as you would have to imagine they would be.
The Bad: Sayid’s story though follows in this season’s collection of somewhat unhelpful flashbacks. I suppose it does give us a sense of Sayid being a good guy and slowly becoming the man we see in the present, from the man who was capable of torturing people everyday. However the implication that he has now learnt to be forgiving doesn’t really hold with his desire for revenge which raged last season (after Shannon’s death in 206). That culminated in him trying to shoot Ben in the head (218) which hardly demonstrated forgiveness. I know that revenge is a different emotional state than torture and that the situations are not directly comparable. However it is difficult to see this flashback as a significant moment for Sayid’s character when he was willing to execute Ben to make himself feel better.
Sawyer wants all his stuff back and all he has to risk is not calling people nicknames for a week? Shouldn’t they have said for a year or a month or something?
The Unknown: Klugh is willing to die in order to avoid being captured and Mikhail seems to want to die before giving anything away. What are they protecting? It’s good to see this behaviour because it suggests that the Others are doing something on the island or with the island which is really important and interesting. It was also interesting to see a Dharma manual about food drops, could the Others have been requesting drops and receiving them (See 217)?
How has Rousseau never seen any Dharma stations before? This is the second station we have seen (208) which is not hidden in any way. Could she by lying for some reason? It’s difficult to imagine she hasn’t been exploring in her sixteen years on the island.
Best Moment: Amira’s speech about her cat and how she learned to forgive Sayid. Those analogy stories are common in television today. They serve an important purpose by condensing complicated issues into a simple and memorable story. This is a good one and the acting backs it up to produce a really solid end to that story.
The Bottom Line: This is a much needed episode for Lost. Not only to entertain with a tense, dramatic story but to encourage us that answers will be forthcoming. Thank God for Sayid and some logic.
Feedback
Add your comments on this episode below. They may be included in the weekly podcasts.
’)